had a hand in c-span's success. happy birthday. announcer: c-span2. 39 years of bringing the u.s. senate live into homes across the country. thanks to the support of our cable partners. together we bring you democracy unfiltered. announcer: c-sn, democracy unfiltered. we're funded by these television companies and more. including cox. >> when connection is needed most, cox is there to help. bringing affordable internet to families in need, new tech to boys and girls clubs, and support to veterans. whenever and wherever it matters most. we'll be there. >> cox supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> house democratic leaders held a press conference to discuss their party's priorities and

president trump's agenda. democratic caucus chair pete aguilar and vice chair ted lieu both condemned the attack on jewish individuals in boulder, colorado. they also answered questions on the republicans' tax and spending cuts legislation. from capitol hill, this is 15 minutes. mr. aguilar: good morning. let me begin by saying our cause heard an update on the situation in boulder, colorado, and the horrendous attack that injured 12 innocent people. anti-semitism has no place in american life. and we stand with the jewish community in this difficult hour and always. republicans in congress don't care if your health care is too expensive. and they don't care if you can't afford your medical bills. they voted for what elon musk called a disgusting abomination,

a republican budget that throws millions of americans off of their health insurance. republicans don't care if your tariffs, if their tariffs are raising your prices across the board and making it harder to make ends meet. they voted to take away food assistance for families, seniors, veterans, and they'll continue to reward billionaire donors, keeping -- who keep them in office with tax breaks so they can hold on to power. they're getting rich off of the stock trades, while working people worry about losing their jobs. when confronted with the truth, they often just lie. or they show their true colors like one republican senator did by dismissing concerns that medicaid cuts might lead to unnecessary deaths as a result of their disgusting abomination. kicking millions off of their health care. we are all going to die, she

said. that is the republican health care plan in a nut shell. and that's why republicans can't be trusted to make your health care or anything else more affordable for working families. vice chair ted lieu. mr. lieu: thank you. i also condemn the horrific terrorist attack in boulder, colorado. about a dozen people were burned. some critically. because of a terrorist who threw essentially molotov cocktails at a group of jewish americans and let me just be clear. hamas is a genocidal, homicide alex stream terrorism organization who attacked israel, not the other way around. and now jewish americans in america are fearing for their safety because of folks who are committing brazen acts of anti-semitism. we need to call it out when we see it. and i urge that the person be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law who committed this heinous terrorist attack.

i'd like to now talk about senator joany ernst's statement. that we all are going to die. she is correct. that we all are going to die. but it shouldn't be at the hands of republican legislation. and the republicans' big, ugly bill is going to cause unnecessary death. so then senator ernst doubled down on her statement and did a video of herself walking through a cemetery, again, talking about what she said. and then she ended by citing jesus. i'm just a simple catholic. but let me just tell you, i actually read the gospels. and jesus goes around healing people. that's what he does. right? he heals a woman who was blind. he heals a person who had lep rosy. he heals a person who was paralyzed. 41 acts of healing in the gospel. that's what jesus did in terms of acts. so it's exactly the opposite of what senator ernst is saying and

calm me old fashion -- call me old-fashioned, but i think the goal of government isn't to hasten the deaths of americans. it's to make the lives of americans better. and clearly this bug, ugly bill it -- big, ugly bill is not going to do that. now we see some republican members who are opposed to it because, guess what, they didn't read the bill. so marjorie taylor greene yesterday opposes a provision which is a 10-year moratorium on states regulating artificial intelligence. so i agree with marjorie taylor greene once every 100 years. this is that time. i agree that this 10-year provision is extreme. it's going to cause unnecessary harm and, look, i think the federal government's fine doing preemption when we preempt with something. you can't just preempt with nothing. and this is a bad provision and i hope the senate will take out this 10-year moratorium. mr. aguilar: thank you, ted.

questions? reporter: a couple ranking members -- [indiscernible] -- fairly senior members are leaving the thousand run for higher office. i'm curious -- [indiscernible] -- mr. aguilar: i think vice chair lieu and i have had the privilege of serving with a lot of members who have moved on to other jobs within public service. whether that's our former colleague and the attorney general, javier becerra, to governor michelle lujan grisham. members are going to seek opportunities to serve their constituents in different ways. that's the blessing of being a house member. is folks will take opportunities and then last cycle obviously we saw different opportunities with now senator andy kim and senator

gallego, senator slotkin. all coming from -- lisa blunt rochester. aum coming from the house. we take a lot of pride in that. the fact that we have some friend oafers there -- friends over there who used to be house members. we take it as an opportunity for renewal, to hear from the perspectives of new members. it's a point of pride that we now have the ability to bounce ideas off of folks in the other chamber. i said other chamber, not upper chamber, by the way. when we talk about the u.s. senate. so this is an opportunity for us to continue to benefit from new ideas of those new members and build on existing relationships with those folks who have moved on to other jobs. reporter: there's debate in the senate right now where there's a sanctions package --

[indiscernible] -- leader thune to bring that particular bill to the floor. i wanted to get the caucus' thoughts on imposing additional sanctions on russia and what do you make of the president's shift in tone toward vladimir putin? he's put out some posts saying he's surprised by, you know, putin's unwillingness to engage in good-faith peace talks. i wanted to get your thought on that. mr. aguilar: i think many of us on capitol hill warned him in dealing with vladimir putin. and i think that you're seeing that now. this seems like the upside down, right? donald trump's former friends and vladimir putin and elon musk are now being -- are now not besties. i can't keep track of it anymore. but russia is a threat. we have voted for sanctions for russia previously. we continue to view it through the lens of national security.

and we will be willing and ready to make deliberations and votes if there are packages and proposals but i think right now the effort that the senate is undertaking is more of an effort to get donald trump to be supportive of russian sanctions than it is to get the house of representatives to be supportive of russian sanctions. they clearly are trying to work donald trump to get to this position. we'll see what happens in the weeks to come. mr. lieu: vladimir putin has repeatedly said that ukraine is a part of russia and putin attacked ukraine, crimea, and then when there was not a good response from the west, he attacked again ukraine a second time. in my view it's putin will not stop until his troops are defeated on the battlefield. and i urge the trump administration to understand that fact. i believe the best way to get

putin to the negotiating table is to apply maximum pressure in terms of sanctions. give ukraine what they need to defeat russian troops on the battlefield and then we'll get putin to the negotiating table. reporter: a number your members -- [indiscernible] -- is it helpful to your party to come together, for these folks -- [indiscernible] -- mr. aguilar: it's helpful for members of our party to meet with outside voices, to talk about an agenda that puts working families first. and that's how i viewed those discussions. which is, what is our strategy as a party to put working families first, how do we lower the costs that people face? clearly we're united against this one, you know, ugly bill. that house republicans passed. that is now over in the senate. and we will clearly work on

different items to lower the costs that people face. we've talked often about those, child tax credit, low income housing credit, all of these pieces that are so instrumental in helping working families get forward. so i think that that's always important, to huddle with colleagues and friends and stakeholders, to make sure that we're on the same page. and that's how i viewed the conference. but i wasn't there. reporter: thanks, mr. chairman. republicans were just in here. they blame democrats' immigration policies for the attack in boulder. saying this individual was here illegally. do you wish that democrats -- [indiscernible] -- handle the immigration issue differently? mr. aguilar: i think right now we're thinking about the 12 people who have injuries as a result of the attack. i'm sure there will be

opportunities to dig deeper on the status of the individual who perpetrated this heinous act. i don't think it was ours before republicans were adder -- hours before republicans were already sounding the alarm about immigration policies closely tying it to this attack. there will be opportunities to dig deeper in his status. obviously we believe that it's not ok to overstay a ves but let's -- visa but let's understand the facts before we make declarations and let's think about the folks, including one or two that are in critical condition, before we start injecting the republican talking points on the political side. go ahead. yeah. reporter: coming up you have the oversight ranking member -- [indiscernible] -- in the democratic caucus and it's another pivotal moment for the

party to determine who's going to be the next leader of this powerful committee. somebody who is younger and eager and has a lot of energy versus someone who has a lot of experience. you've talked about several different things when you're picking a new member. what are things that the caucus is going to be looking at and what do you think should be the quality of the next ranking member? mr. aguilar: the caucus will have the opportunity to woe that and vote, the vice chair and i noticed the election for three weeks from now in our regularly scheduled caucus meetings. our expectation is that the candidates will make their way to meet with members and this will give them ample opportunity to do that. i think members, any member will view that race through the lens of experience, a willingness to do the hard work of oversight. the important for the foal yo that oversight con -- portfolio that oversight contains within

the federal workforce i think is also incredibly important. as we've said before, seniority and length of tenure is always a factor. but it is one of many factors that members consider. and members will arrive at their own decisions and make a pick for the ranking member position. that's our expectation, the vice chair and i are tasked with presiding over the election. so our job is to just make sure that it's done in a fair way and to make sure that the members hear directly from the candidates. mr. lieu: i just want to say that just because someone's a senior member doesn't mean they have less energy. one point of fact, speaker pelosi had and continues to have more energy than most human beings that i know. mr. aguilar: thank you. reporter: thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025]